#deltierin

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HI I AM COMING TO BEG U FOR HELP HOW DO YOU MAP OH MASTER OF ART

HELLO HI I AM HERE TO AID U MY BROTHER IN ARMS!!!

this got very long and i tried to cover things that helped me when first getting into hand drawing maps, but if there's any other places where you're struggling let me know!!!! ive got a lot in my brain im just going from broad to narrow here :)

BIG SCALE:

great ways to make continents that look like continents include

- peeling an orange or equivalent citrus messily and laying out the pieces of peel, and copying those shapes pros: realistic coastlines that would fit together like in real life, if you get into the nitty gritty these can also serve as tectonic plate templates. cons: messy. might not have oranges on hand. can be hard to scale up and transfer to digital - getting some paper and pouring a bunch of doodads of some kind on it, then clumping them in vaguely the shapes you want and tracing the coastlines. things i have used in the past include dry macaroni, beans, dice, and paper stars. pros: potentially less messy than oranges, more control over the shapes, scales up easily cons: coastlines will be less realistic tectonically if that's a concern (for both of those i usually then take a picture of what i get and start editing in my drawing program of choice from there)

other strats to try: taking a grungy brush in your drawing program of choice, making it Huge, and scribbling a few clumps, then on another layer going in and tracing around the edges to make the coastlines. using a map from real life and cutting chunks out and rearranging/copying/warping them to make a collage you can trace for coastlines. etc

SLIGHTLY SMALLER SCALE:

country borders were, until quite recently, determined mainly by geographical obstacles like mountain ranges, rivers, canyons, oceans, etc that are very hard to cross. also borders will be highly disputed when it comes to warring states or eras without, like, satellites and bureaucracy and such!! making them fuzzy or jagged or having areas where both colors mix or stretches of land where no one knows where either country ends is in fact very fun and cool and sexy

mountains usually are chains, and so are islands. i like to make big curves across the world map where i think it would be cool to put mountains, and when those curves extend into oceans i like to put island chains on those as well. if you choose to do whole ass tectonics with your orange then do those on plate borders

biomes can get really specific in their placement if you want to be hyper-realistic, or you can put them wherever you like. personally i like a little realism a little "fantasy world can have whatever you want in it". deserts are usually on one side of mountains, and on the other is really lush. the higher the mountains the larger the areas and more extreme the difference between the two. outside of that case, youll usually get forest > grassland > desert in a gradient. also remember there are multiple kinds of everything

HOW TO DRAW THESE THINGS

good ways to draw rivers include: tracing blood vessels from photos where you can see someone's veins through the skin, dead trees or lightning, or cracks in stone. theyre all fractals and how detailed you want to get is up to you. BUT they always flow downhill and eventually meet the ocean (the ultimate downhill), usually starting in the mountains. also those fractals all go kinda reverse of what you might think; the ends feed into the main river, not the other way around. i used to mess that up a lot

PROTIP: canyons and the like are almost always old riverbeds. use the same method as you do making rivers, just widen the brush, maybe draw a border around the shape instead of just a line

mountains: personally i prefer using premade brushes for mountains just because the one (1) time i did them by hand it took me like four hours for one mountain chain. this video has some tips on different mountain styles if any of those look good to you, otherwise there are about a bajillion videos like that out there!!

biomes in general: just a little texture is usually plenty! doing some bushy edges on deciduous forests, pointy bush edges on pine forests, a few little grass lines and sand dunes, etc etc is usually plenty to get the point across :)

SMALLER SCALE

roads are personally the bane of my existence. i try to treat them like rivers just a little straighter, depending on what time period you're emulating you might go curvier. also they dont care about maintaining width or what direction the fractal goes in humans just put those shits wherever they walk a lot. in contrast railroads are usually pretty straight, simply because trains are built different than cars or wagons or people

cities are almost always on a source of freshwater and a valuable resource that draws people for work in the early days. also they'll have like 10-20x the landmass of the city itself in farms around them, less if theyre on the coast and have access to lots of seafood, more if theyre more landlocked. those farms can be farther away if theyre more industrialized and can transport the food en masse easily. you also dont have to draw the farms just kinda mention them in the story if relevant

towns can be on smaller rivers, lakes, or even just by natural springs. you wont find permanent settlements in places where water isnt accessible (unless you have magic to fix that which is always a cool detail)

EVEN SMALLER SCALE

city maps i have 0 advice on other than roads get thinner the fewer people travel on them, industry will be on a very different side of town than the rich people for smell and noise reasons, and especially when emulating pre-car times, think about how far you would feasibly walk in a day. if you want characters to be able to know pretty much the whole city that they live in, it's gotta be reasonable for them to walk to the farthest edge of their knowledge and back home (or to an inn) in a reasonable timeframe, if they have a home. also big cities tend to have colleges, trade schools, and a bajillion and one jobs that need doing. magic cities might need mages to maintain infrastructure, non-magical cities need people who light the streetlamps when it gets dark, waste disposal is Hugely Important, etc etc etc

it can sound boring at first but coming up with the odd maintenance jobs people have to do in cities can be a really fun creative exercise, and it might inform how the city is laid out, too!!

IN CONCLUSION

think of the world in layers. landmasses + oceans -> biomes and geographical landmarks -> countries and borders -> settlements -> districts. i literally have those on different layers in clip studio so i can futz with them more easily.

also realism is not the be-all-end-all of this. there's lots of room for symbolism and environmental storytelling in maps, as ive ranted about in the past, and stuff doesn't have to make absolute sense in the real world to work well for your world. breaking the rules is like, art 201 and it applies to ever part of the art in question <3

i hope this helped!!!! again pls let me know if you have any more questions i love helping out :D

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favorite goddess in the ehlverse for WBW?

hi hello!!! im late answering this bc ive had a deficit of spoons the last couple days, but thank you for sending it in, becca!!!! <3

Okay, SO, I talked about my top two favorite Goddesses here this week as well, but now I want to talk about the runner-up, Luma!!

Luma is the patron of Vigor, Battle, Legends, and Siblinghood, but when talking about her domains, Vigor is also often translated/portrayed as Youth! She's who everyone in the Maelands devotes to until they're ~15, as she's basically the Goddess of Childhood (literally, her indirect titles include The Daughter and The Child (but in Emarye, she's called The Legend!)) and devoting to her is seen as a protective blessing!

One of the reasons I like her so much is because, when I was coming up with what devotion ceremonies looked like, I decided her thing was getting a piercing! So every year you choose to devote to Luma, you get a new earring, lip ring, nose ring, etc. etc. So the longest-devoted Priestesses of hers are these strong old women with so many piercings that their ears sag with the weight!! And these Priestesses are often both bards and super battle-heavy - and because Luma is often depicted with a battleax and a lute, you'll just see these super punk-looking old women around the Ehlverse with a bajillion piercings, fuckoff huge battleaxes, and instruments on their person at random!!

But yeah!! I love Luma, and I love her role in the story as well (Tieling is a Prophet of Luma, the prophecy that led to him being Chosen was granted by Luma to his mother during his birth, and she's the most revered of the Goddesses in Sieril, alongside Erra, hence the Warriors of Luma a.k.a. Lu'Siire) and I could talk about her and the other Goddesses literally all day

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This illustration is sadly no longer canon-compliant, but hey, I'm proud of those buildings. They were the first ones I ever just... drew without thinking too hard about it.

“How old are you? You’re a child?” “Hm. Yes. Older than… you.” “What are you younger than?” “Hm… the Eternals of this age.” “… What do you mean?” “Hm?” “What do you mean, Eternals of this age?” “Nothing new has ever happened. This is something we learn early. This is something you do not ever seem to learn.”

Do not repost. | Reblogs appreciated! | Ko-Fi (5 commission slots available)

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ANDESITE (ANDY) MEYWIN - The Millennium Saga [Firebreathers ; Echoseers ; Goddess-Touched]

My brainstorming makes a spiral around the table, still entirely illegible and layered upon itself, despite the ample room I’ve been given. Still not enough, because even after sending calls for spare Haethrite and Voltimony across the continent, I haven’t pieced together a design that we could test without fear of losing all we have. Today, though, I have another expert in the room to help. Unfortunately, Ember seems as lost in my technical work as they would be on one of the moons.

Basics:

She/her - Trans woman

Sapphic (her sexuality is an enigma but she likes cougars) - 22 (~24 on Earth)

Mae Ehlf - Air Mage

Heavily Autistic-coded

Where she begins:

We first meet Andy when she's in the midst of brainstorming a radio design for her younger siblings to use with Ember's so they can talk late into the night without risking the over-policed streets past curfew. And this context is where we most often see her: deep in her own thoughts, working on some device or another made from discarded scraps scrounged from the more prestigious forges in the area, augmented with Goblin technology rather than the extremely expensive Soulvite expected of proper Starsmiths.

But she makes it work. Most of the time.

Her masterpiece, Wrench--a dragon automaton built to act as security for her rented studio space--still doesn't know not to eat any and all fabric within reach, but Andy's confident she'll find a fix for that. Eventually.

What she finds herself confronting:

Andy's impact on the story is instant and massive, even if she doesn't become a narrator until book three: she's the one who gives the others a safe avenue to determine whether Ember's invitation to the rebellion is legitimate via Wrench, and who negotiates a rather underhanded deal with Emerald K'Ron in exchange for her own services to the Rebellion.

She wants an audience with Eternal Veratrum.

She's always been relentlessly curious, after all. And when the opportunity presents itself, she will always leap on the chance to learn something she's been wondering about.

This is how she blackmails her way into the rebellion. This is how she strongarms her way into the top-secret mission in Glittergale. This is how she sneaks her way onto the ship headed to Deltierin.

This is how she's thrust into the role of saving the world with nothing but scrap metal, her own vague notes, and an ever-ticking timer to reverse engineer her observations before the sea swallows the world whole.

Important connections:

Family: Gab and Annie (triplets), Dian, Iggy, Quartz, and Slate Meywin. Aurora and Mahann Meywin-Tell (parents).

Friends: Nimbus (best friend) and Ember Timber, Beta Altiana.

Enemies: K'Ron Actaea (once she finds out about Actaea's whole deal), Eternal Tieling of Nimia (on principle; also, she thinks he's annoying)

MUSIC

Themes - DRUMS OF GANJA-TAI by Kevin Penkin, Science by Two Steps from Hell and Thomas Bergersen, Dashing and Bashing by Gareth Coker

Vibes - The Flood by aeseaes, Streaks by ANIMA!, Cargo by Puppet

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Pax my friend let's talk food for wbw!! Are there any cultural dishes in your world that you feature in your projects? How do food cravings/traditions change as the year goes on? This ask brought to you by me fuckin dying for avgolemono and spanikopita lately btw.

HI ALEX happy wbw!!! I had never heard of either of those dishes before but now I am So Hungry they look so so good :O I hope you get some soon!!!

As for cultural dishes in the Ehlverse,,,,, well. Despite my affinity for food irl, im. not super creative when it comes to food in fiction. There are, so far, exactly two (2) meals I describe in any of my Ehlverse books. One of them is in Whispers and actually relevant to the plot.

The OTHER is a traditional meal that Veratrum cooks for her grandkids when they're in Tal'Ren in Firebreathers! It was mostly borne of me thinking over what kinds of food are available in the bayou, so it's a cuisine with lots of fish, rice, and citrus, as well as naan-like flatbread that I imagine is made from wetland-based grains instead of, like, wheat.

And since my personal WBW engagement challenge today is to draw something for each answer that I can, here's my (admittedly very basic-looking) rendition of that meal!!

As far as holiday foods go, I really should put more thought into that sort of thing. I've been playing with religious worship differences throughout the Ehlverse on the backburner for a while - I think Deltierin would put a lot of importance on food and drink, especially in terms of fasting and feasting and offerings. They'd probably have a period of fasting and a period of feasting each year, though probably not back-to-back. There's probably feast days every couple of months in the Maelands, and two per year in Sieril but they're HUGE and everyone in the land is invited to Tal'Ren. And Emarye probably used to absolutely pop OFF with feasts but with industrialization hitting them at the same time as huge surges in criminal activity that uh. Probably fell off to the wayside a bit.

Thank you for the ask!! <3<3<3

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ACTAEA K'RON - The Millennium Saga [Firebreathers ; Echoseers ; Goddess-Touched]

They tell me he is the King, as they show me the proper way to bow: one knee to the floor, head down, and left hand cupped just below my collarbone. They tell me he has been for nine hundred and thirty-five years as we sit quietly to his right at a table bedecked in blue and gold to tell everyone of our importance, our power. They tell me he will be until the time when there is no one left to rule as they guide me into the halls of sunset and aspen forest with a silk-gloved hand. And they tell me he will love me as a daughter, as they pat my head and assure me they will return in a few hours.

Basics:

She/her - Cis woman AroAce** - 72 (~80 on Earth) Rill Ehlf - Plant Mage **Note: she doesn't know it's not just a thing she needs to get over. This fact is, as it happens, a major contributor to her villainy.

Where she begins:

Actaea K'Ron is a contentious person. We hear of her first from Ember's own musings of dislike, and then from Annie's prattling gossip of conflict in the noble courts.

And then we learn she is the reason Isa is mute. The reason Lakia is missing an eye. The reason Elar was willing to risk a death warrant and manhunt rather than stay any longer in her presence, after she was told to start preparing for her beloved war to end in a treaty.

And then she shows up, and she proves she is willing to hurt more than just her family.

She wants her son and his spawn to suffer; she will hunt their friends, too.

She will chase them across the world.

What she finds herself confronting:

Actaea is the Spymaster and General of the Mae Ehlven military, and Peace of the Rill--a duty and title she's neglected in favor of war with Deltierin on the Mae Ehlves' behalf for the last two decades. She is also, in honor of an agreement Rillmother Veratrum and King Tieling came to almost a thousand years ago, the King's right hand.

She wants nothing more than to please him, because that is all she wanted from Veratrum.

She failed.

And so she will take it out on the world, because if she cannot have love as a daughter, she will settle for fear.

Important connections:

Family: K'Ron Elar (son), Isa, and Lakia (grandchildren) (all disowned). Eternal Rillmother Veratrum (30th generation descendant).

Friends: Edgar Trueheart (a colleague in Avatica), Genli Rainer (her lieutenant), Eternal Tieling (one-sided devotion)

Enemies: K'Ron Elar (she never wanted him), Isa (she never wanted Elar to make her mistake), and Lakia (the girl that shouldn't exist). [REDACTED] (for refusing her demands). Eternal Rillmother Veratrum (for withholding affection), Eternal Arthur Shieldstone (she thinks him naive). Ember Timber (the street rat who got away).

MUSIC

Themes - Shape of Lies by Eternal Eclipse, Fountain of Passages by Audiomachine, Dusk of War by Audiomachine, Paul Dinletir, and Uyanga Bold

Vibes - Reaper by Glaceo and RIELL, Villains Pt. 1 by Emma Blackery, Monster by Willyecho

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🫁🪓☎️ for horror asks :)

Hi!! Thanks for the ask <3<3<3

I'll answer these for Lakia from The Millennium Saga!

🫁 - would your character cannibalize someone? would it be for survival or because they like it? is it for religious reasons? something else?

wishing i kept marika for this one If it came to the absolute last option, she absolutely would! But she's been lowkey training to be a Whiptail Knight for ten years, and if anyone could find other options in the most hospitable of environments, it's a Whiptail Knight.

Though, I will mention that when it comes to being a Whiptail Knight, she'd consider eating bits of herself before eating her dragon. Like, eating the Whiptail is worse than cannibalism to her. So there's that.

🪓 - does your character have an axe to grind? a need for bloody vengeance against someone who wronged them? why?

OH BOY DOES SHE.

Her whole arc centers around vengeance against Actaea for a multitude of reasons including Actaea's abuse of her and her brother as kids, the Whole Entire War with Deltierin, and the Everything that happens at the end of Echoseers/start of Goddess-Touched. Safe to say that pretty much the entire world is on the same wavelength as her, just too scared to pursue Actaea after said Everything.

☎️ - would your character answer the phone in a horror movie?

... Yes, to try to intimidate whoever/whatever is on the other end. And it wouldn't work, but she'd be the only one getting out alive.

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how do you pronounce xavi, tieling, and lakia? (ftr: i'm currently reading them as zah-vee, ty-ling, and lah-key-ah)

you've got Xavi and Lakia right!! and while Tieling would introduce himself more like tea-ling (or with like. 2.5 syllables like tea-ah-ling), that's just because that's how Arthur said it the first time they met!!

there's canonically no one way to say Tieling, because it's a word from a language that's been dead in-world for several millennia, and that language relied a lot more on the melody/notes words were said to rather than letters and strict pronunciation - and i, personally, make a vibe check with my heart every time i say his name out loud, so there's no wrong answer!!

other pronunciations encountered in-book include:

t-yelling (like just BARELY any t at all, like a glottal stop/pause)

telling (like saying something)

dying (the fair folk dont really have L sounds)

tiling (like you!!)

tilling (like farming)

tel/til-lean (the northern deltierin language always puts emphasis on the second syllables of words, so this one stands out the most to him)

thank you for asking!! i wasnt expecting anyone to take note of those tags, it's very sweet of u to notice and bring up <3

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Happy WBW! In the setting of your WIP, are there any interesting constellations? What are their stories?

Hi!! Thanks so much for sending this in, I'll try to hit you with a double-WBW the next time I'm around for it!!!

There are!! They're brought up in a very specific scene between Gab and a side character who I haven't gotten to talk about much, and I don't want to spoil too much of that scene with this explanation, so I'll be rather simplistic with it:

There's the Great Wolf, which is a northern constellation that can be seen from anywhere north of the northernmost point of the Godwoods. Its very well-known in Emarye, and the general story is that it is what rips open the sky and lets the auroras through at night. The snout points north, towards Fowden!

Then there's Lumira, an archer constellation that you can see all over the Maelands and down to about the top of the mountain range that splits Deltierin in half. Its story is of an ancient Prophet of Luma who felled an entire army from afar with just their bow, and their appearance heralds spring and summer.

And then there's a constellation of a Godtree, whose branches all stem from the brightest star in the sky, and a ram-horned dragon constellation that circles the Great Wolf to nip at its heels. And if I remember right, that's all of the ones I've come up with so far!!

Thanks again for dropping by!! <3<3<3

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Weh I realized too late you'd already answered about magic ink! Instead, what about holidays? Does your world have them? If so, what and how are they celebrated? If not, why not?

Hi!! No worries, I'm glad you saw the other asks before I had the chance to tag you in them!! <3<3<3

I've only got a few holidays figured out in the Ehlverse, and only one or two of them are celebrated beyond the Maelands!!

One of those is Springtide, and so far it's celebrated in the Maelands and Emarye on the spring equinox. For the Maelands, it's just one more excuse to throw a festival for the combined efforts of the goddesses Erra and Delta (specifically their domains of Nature and Time, respectively), and its significance basically boils down to low key worship and heralding in the fresh leaves. It's one of the lesser holidays, and often gets overlooked beyond "oh hey, festival food and discounts on bouquets", if that helps convey the attitude towards it.

In Emarye, Springtide isn't the midpoint of spring - it's the beginning, and for many, it comes after months of sparse or even nonexistent sunlight. It's a much bigger celebration of the warmer months and the end to the Winterlong Night, especially in the regions north of the Nightwoods, and while it's also a celebration of Erra and Delta (though Delta is referred to as the Fury), it's also a celebration of Hio, which is Emarye's demigod representation/origin story of the sun. (Fun fact, I wrote a short about him around this time in 2021!)

Some other holidays around the Ehlverse include:

- The Days of Change, celebrated in Deltierin on every equinox and solstice, with similar reasoning/meaning to Springtide and with special emphasis on Delta's domain of Change over her domain of Time, and for Erra's domain of the Unkown over Nature. They feature lots of pennants, and each season is associated with one of the other four goddesses in turn (Lib (Death, Art, History, Love) in winter, Vii (Life, Parenthood, Fate, Language) in spring, Luma (Siblinghood, Legends, Vigor/Youth, Battle) in summer, and Venn (Expertise, Ingenuity, Curiosity, Creation) in autumn.) - Aree's Festival of Light, an event that lasts all summer and celebrates Luma as the patron of Light Mages and entertainers. This one features paper lanterns hung all over the city and the expansion of the night market from the trunk of the Godtree all the way out to the harbor, always kept in the shade to adhere to the "night" aspect, but open all day during the festival. - Aree's Festival of Venn, the last night of the Festival of Light before the night market retreats back to the trunk and goes back to its nocturnal schedule, celebrated with fireworks and other displays of magic to honor Her patronage of magic and mastery. - And, finally, some places celebrate the anniversary of Tieling of Nimia's ascension to the throne! He doesn't encourage or particularly like this practice, because by nature it's also a celebration of the Fall of Fahrial, which he and many others believe should warrant a day of mourning rather than revelry. But in practice, he's found that making that a government holiday automatically makes it cause for celebration, so it's one that people choose to partake in themselves rather than getting a day off of work or school.

Thanks again for the question!! <3<3<3

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“[It] was utterly destroyed. It did not happen gradually, like the Rill Decay. It was not specialized in its targeting, like Vampirism. The entire continent was inverted in the blink of an eye, and every being, every creation, every history it held--all of it was lost. Forever. [...] The tallest mountains became some of the deepest trenches we know of. There’s a line you can trace with the occurrences of undersea earthquakes that stretches from the northern fringes of Emarye’s ice sheets all the way to the south pole, about a thousand miles from the southernmost reaches of Deltierin. The global sea level dropped afterward; there’s evidence in the oldest histories Glittergale has kept that Sieril used to be a much smaller archipelago, and the bayou’s existence is a direct result of the Decay.”

“Shit,” Ember breathes. Tieling’s mind is a knot of fascination, worry, and grim acceptance. “Well. That would certainly be enough bloodshed for the Deepfolk.” “The ocean could well have literally turned red.”

:)

anyone want to learn something super fucked up that happened in ehl's history

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In return, sending you an ask for Worldbuilding Wednesday! What's some of your world's superstitions, both good and bad?

Hey, happy WBW!!! Thank you!!! :D

Some common superstitions in the Ehlverse include:

- the appearance of Vampiric animals is a bad omen, usually taken as a warning of death (which is understandable, because carnivorous animals hit with vampirism can’t digest solid food, just like vampiric people, and because they don’t understand it, they become a lot more dangerous to people that they would otherwise avoid in their desperation for food)

- spotting an opalescent object or animal during your first meeting with someone is a sign that that person will be meaningful in your life

- accidentally breaking a wooden object when you fall is a sign of being blessed by the Mayhist Goddesses; on the flip side, purposefully breaking or burning a wooden object unnecessarily is inviting their wrath

- in southern Deltierin, many Mikrona believe that the first animal a child Shifts to is indicative of how that child will act when they are an adult (children that Shift to notoriously dangerous animals - like storm snakes or flint cats - are often Forsaken if the parent believes this prediction wholeheartedly)

- and in Emarye, if someone sees a shooting star before the first thaw, it’s an omen for a wonderful year to come

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Hello! Happy ( late ) WBW & FAF! For WBW: are there special events in your WIP, and how are they celebrated? For FAF: Pick one animal to turn into for life. Why did you pick that?

Hey, happy WBW & FAF!!

To answer for WBW:

As we know, the Festival of Magic is a celebration of the Mayhist goddess, Venn, and all the ways she manifests on Ehl! But, there are celebrations for each of the other goddesses, too!!

(before we go on, I should mention that Mayhism follows 6 goddesses. they are: Delta, goddess of time and, subsequently, change; Venn, goddess of magic and stories; Vii, goddess of life and joy; Lib, goddess of death and peace; Luma, goddess of the sky and moons; and Erra, goddess of the ground and oceans.)

For example, the Days of Change are acknowledged on solstices and equinoxes, and their respective festivals take place in Delya, Deltierin, as a day of remembrance, and of planning for the future. You will see lots of triangular pennants, usually in indigo, white, light gray, and cyan, with black motifs of trees. Days of Change are some of the more serious celebrations in Mayhism, though; people generally spend the days with their loved ones, visiting graves and planting trees. This is also the most likely celebration to show up in Firebreathers, other than the Festival of Magic!

There are also less formal celebrations at the Temple of the Nimia, whenever there’s a meteor shower or an eclipse, in honor of Luma! They send word out a few weeks in advance, to let other temples know that one is predicted, and visitors are invited to watch the sky and listen to music with the Priestesses!

To answer for FAF:

I’d probably turn into a Basset Hound, honestly. I’d get to sleep for upwards of 16 hours a day and no one would judge me. Also, I’d be a dog, and get all kinds of hugs and pets!!

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Happy late wbw! What are the countries in your world known for? what reputations do they have? what goods come from each of them?

heya, happy WBW!!! sorry this answer is so late, ive been Busy™

HOWEVER prepare yourself for just as long-winded an answer as always :D

-

So, Ehl doesn’t tend to do “countries” the way we do them on Earth, and that’s mostly because the more prevalent belief is “you can rule your local area’s land and you can rule a people, but you can’t rule more land than you know of” if that makes sense? Basically, when I refer to the Ehlven Nation, I’m talking about major cities that are under Ehlven control because of population ratios, and any Ehlven person that hasn’t sought out citizenship in a specific city rather than their nation.

That being said, there are some peoples who rule entire lands - the Dwarves have full control over Western Nimia because there aren’t enough other peoples there to contest the population. And then, if we move our scope away from the Maelands, the continents themselves are more like countries than anything within them?

But that ^ is basically an explanation for why things are worded a bit weirdly here.

MOVING ON THOUGH, people from Aree and it’s immediate surroundings (aka Arish people) are considered chaotic and weird by a lot of others on Maelani, because there are just so many different cultures intermingling in such a small area, and it’s hard not to have a lot of unique cultural overlaps and oddities. But they’re also under Ehlven control, at the moment, so it’s also a booming artisanal hub, and Arish schools are less likely to let you graduate if you don’t have at least one artistic skill. Also, the Mayhist celebrations there are wild.

More generally, though, Mae people are seen as a lot more aggressive, because war pops up between at least two nations every couple decades. They’re also rules-oriented and organized, as some of the few peoples who actually have centralized governments or governments at all. And they’re the ones you go to in a pinch, because shit dude, dragons deliver my mail, i can take ANYTHING.

As far as goods and where they come from:

- the Human farmers of Maelani provide a lot of the world’s grain and wool - but also Avatica itself (the human capital) is the place for any and all alchemy-related things - if you need a reliable, magically self-sufficient device, you get your shit from Glittergale. if you can afford it, something directly from the Forges themselves. - Ehlven farmers in the Godwoods have great conditions for potatoes, beets, carrots, and venison, and if you have a potato, it was probably grown in the divots of Godwood bark - Aree, Cahnei, and Tasiri have Godwood mines, and Aree has a stronghold on the ship building industry in Maelani right now - Myshari harbor in Emarye is known for jewelry and intricate craftsmanship - on the other end of Emarye, Fowden is THE hotspot for the black market - a lot of the best medicinal supplies come from Sieril, unless it’s a crimsonvine sedative. then it’s from Gordahan. - need paper? linen? leather? Deltierin’s your place. Delya specializes in bookbinding and it’s related supplies; there are several other unnamed cities that specialize in fabrics, yarn, and clothing - also Deltierin’s fruit is the best fruit you heard it here first

there’s more, but this is already long as fuck, so im stopping here. thank you so much for the ask!!!

[magic-is-something-we-create]

Happy WBW from writingamongthecoloredroses! What kind of storytellers exist in your world?

Hi @writingamongthecoloredroses!!! this is 5 weeks late, but I really appreciate your asks!!

On Ehl, there are all kinds of storytellers - I just absolutely love thinking about what kind of stories I would be able to make if I actually, y’know, existed there.

For starters, Fairies, Sharali, Drenn, and Saythe have really strong oral traditions! In the case of Fairies and Drenn, it’s similar to folk tales and things that, if ever written down, would probably result in something like the Illiad, where the Saythe are more strict about keeping to what was passed on - details might change slightly, but the overall story stays intact far, far longer than others would expect. On the flip side, Sharali have been kind of forced into an oral tradition. After a plague wiped out like 98% of their people, most public institutions like libraries became dangerous, because no one knows how long the disease has survived within them. So they mostly tell their stories, some write things down, and they’ve only recently (in world) started writing books and songs again.

Dwarves, Humans, and Ehlves have been obsessed with novels for CENTURIES, and most of their stories are told through books or other text-based mediums. However, Ehlves also have a love of acting in theater and similar settings, hence their Circuses being more focused on riveting storytelling than just showing off cool tricks.

Mikrona, the people who originate from southern Deltierin, also love theater and acting, but because they are a people of shapeshifters who can also change the color of their skin, they tend to do their theater sets on their own bodies, kind of like a puppet show.

Goblins have an equivalent to YouTube that most people go to for storytelling as well as general entertainment, but they also LOVE movies and songs as story mediums, too!

Songs are a popular story medium all over, tbh. Especially in Chard and with the Sirens. 

And generally, the people of Emarye prefer a combo of novels and ballads! They also have a bit of an oral tradition in certain areas, but its not as rampant there as it is with others.

Thank you again for the question!! i got distracted half way through because my friends and i started watching anime on discord LMAO

[magic-is-something-we-create]

hi hello im back from the weekend break i finished the emarye map properly while i was gone